Act One of What’s The Matter with Kristaps Porziņģis? has concluded with a cliffhanger some of you might’ve seen coming. This afternoon, the Warriors released a statement on their long-absent Latvian:
If you’ve got that site blocked, here it is again, but with the most important part bolded:
Golden State Warriors forward/center Kristaps Porziņģis, who missed training camp and the team’s first five (5) preseason games due to a health-related
matter, returned to the Warriors’ practice facility yesterday and met with Warriors General Manager Mike Dunleavy and Vice President of Player Health & Performance Dr. Rick Celebrini. The specific contents of that meeting will remain private. Porziņģis will remain out indefinitely due to the same health-related matter but will be around the team.
An update on his status, including the potential resumption of practice, playing status or timeline, will be provided when available and appropriate.
Gosh. I don’t know. If I didn’t want to make this story more than “out indefinitely,” then I might’ve chosen some less suspicious phrasing. The other day, Brady made a very reasonable assessment about this situation:
Recently inked to a two-year, $40 million extension, Porziņģis — whom the Dubs acquired from the Atlanta Hawks in February — did not join Golden State on their opening-week jaunt to Hawaii, with the team announcing at the eleventh hour that the All-Star was out indefinitely. There were no updates when the team returned home from the island either and that certainly led to rumors swirling. No one seems aware as to whether Porziņģis has an injury or an ailment or, if some of the more eyebrow-raising rumors are to be given any credence, something that the team is covering up.
If you wanted to stoke the “covering up” list of possibilities, here you go.
- “specific contents of that meeting will remain private”
- “out indefinitely due to the same health-related matter”
No HIPAA concerns or anything like that. Athlete injury reports have some insurance impact for the teams (and, later, contract negotiations & clauses), but it’s mainly for competition and gambling reasons that we know so much about what’s going on with a player’s body. So… when we are denied specifics, it is unusual. It ought to raise an eyebrow… or two.
Porziņģis has certainly not helped the situation when it comes to quelling concerns or shutting down the rumor mill. He took to X the Everything (Awful) App after the Warriors’ statement with comments of his own.
Don’t put in the paper that Porziņģis has AIDS — he doesn’t!
Now, why might he have said that? I think the obvious answer is that he’s heard the rumors and he’s addressing them head on with a joke, not totally recognizing that there’s a stigma attached to being cavalier about it. That’s probably not what he’s going for with the smiling and the prayer hands, but rather than say something on social media that’s likely to be misconstrued or upsetting, the alternative is to say even less — possibly nothing!
But it’s clear that he wants to show that he’s invested in playing. We can speculate about what’s going on, given what is known —
- He can’t play
- They can’t say why
- But he can be near the team during this time
- His condition is improving with time
— and that only really leads us to a few conclusions.
So, now we’re in Act Two of What’s The Matter with Kristaps Porziņģis? That’s usually when a story has its twist. It’s hard to imagine what that could be here, though. At the end of the day, once this situation has cleared up, he’ll resume basketball activities. Will it be absolutely vital to know just what kept him out for so long? Probably not. The sports fan brain probably needs to know so that it can be added to the summary judgment on the player’s commitment to winning. Whether this is something salacious or something serious, Porziņģis is going to have to wear the slight embarrassment of it going forward, with players and fans alike. And, we have to trust that since there doesn’t seem to be strongly worded statements coming from the team at the moment that he hasn’t done anything to lose their trust or investment.
Basically, this looks like an unfortunate situation. The probability of the Warriors being bad this season was already high, and losing the talent they have on hand for any length of time only makes the bad times more likely.
The regular season tips off a week from tonight!
